John Henry Fuseli: The Shepherd's Dream

               

 

As I looked through the beginning of our text book I found myself intrigued with John Henry Fuseli’s painting, “Nightmare.” I then went on to look at more of his work and found it all to be very interesting but one that I particularly enjoy is his oil painting of “The Shepherd’s Dream” created in 1793. Fuseli’s paintings were included in the Romanticism period. He found himself to be inspired by dramatic subjects from stories, plays, and poems and he also found himself interested in the dark side of the human mind. Many of his images revolve around mythical creatures and the supernatural.  In this painting we see a shepherd resting while mythical creatures such as nymphs, fairies, and elves, circle around him. It was said that when Fuseli first exhibited this painting, he pointed out the relationship it shared with John Milton’s poem, “Paradise Lost.” His poem describes angels shrinking in order to make more room in Hell after the Fall of Man or the temptation of Adam and Eve. I find it interesting how Fuseli found a way to include religion in this painting without directly including any religious figures. I feel that the only way for someone to completely understand what Fuseli was getting across with this painting is to either have read the description or to have read Milton’s poem. What appeals to me the most is the darkness within the painting. Because of the dark border that is created, we can tell that a dream is being depicted in this paining. The bright center between all of the haunting creatures also allows for us to see the depiction of a dream. I get the sense of Hell that is described in Milton’s poem because of the darkness that is used. Although there is a lot of black being used and colors with the same dark tone, Fuseli found a way to create the figures within and allow viewers to see what is going on in his painting. We are able to make out each figure in this scene and we can tell what is going on. We are so used to seeing paintings that use a lot of color or depict bright scenes such as landscapes but Fuseli focused on darker scenes and still managed to make each figure visible and the scene visually engaging without the use of many colors. The creatures around the Shepherd have an eerie look to them. We can tell that they are not human and are meant to be supernatural or mythical figures. Although they have some characteristics of a human, they also have unfamiliar characteristics that make them seem dream-like. For instance, the figure off to the left seems somewhat human-like but it also has a smaller size compared to the shepherd as well as an unfamiliar headpiece. Next to her we see other creatures that are more hidden within the dark. They too have somewhat human-like faces, but they also have an unnatural and eerie look to them. Although the dog is there to protect the shepherd, he too looks a bit disturbing with its unnatural muscle structure. This painting serves as a great example of Fuseli’s work. We can see that he found inspiration in darkness and he found a way to make the unreal appear real to his viewers. I enjoy this piece as well as his other work because it is different from what we are used to seeing in the Renaissance period. It seems that Fuseli took a step forward with self-expression.